Friday, October 6, 2017

Only one tiny little ship....

The USS Maine



Sometimes we start projects because they are important to us.  But too often we start projects because ..... Here is a rediscovery of a project from right years ago.

This was one of my weaker moments.  As readers of this blog know I have a long held interest in the ill fated U.S.S. Maine.  So years ago when I found the 1:1000 scale models of the Spanish American war period ships by Richard Houston I was besides myself.  I just need one ship, that's all just one ship.  With similar words we start down the path of madness.....

 Well I went and ordered the Maine. It was a great model and fun to assemble and paint.  But it looked so alone all by itself. Then I found out Richard Houston had retired and was no longer selling the ships.

 So when I found on eBay someone who was selling a big bunch of them I jumped at the chance.  I spent like a drunken sailor and bought bunches of Spanish and American ships.  Soon I had painted fleets which to do battle with.  But then, I found out about naval rules.  Very complicated, lots of numbers and calculations. Many die rolls for each gun to see if you ranged in, hit the target and then if you caused any damage.  What was worse, the battles between my fleets were so lopsided.  The Spanish ships were, how should I say less then second class compared to the new state of the art American ships.  So off they went into a box to disappear for the next eight years.

Since that time I had forgotten about the ships.  Recently, in cleaning up I found them (along with a number of other forgotten projects).  They do look nice, and perhaps there is a simple fun set of rules out there.....

To be continued......

10 comments:

  1. I have the same large collection of Houston Span-Am fleets. Mine have only been on the gaming table a few time in 20 years. If we were closer, we could have a game and commiserate on what might have been. Check out War Times Journal’s Quick Fire rules.
    Looking forward to seeing more of your project.

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    1. In reviewing my fleets I see I am missing a few ships to have complete order of battled for Santiago and Manila bay. This is too bad as I have heard the ships are no longer available.

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    2. Which ships are you missing? I have a few extra...

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    3. USS Raleigh
      USS Concord
      USS Petrel

      Spain
      Reina Cristina
      Castilla
      Pluton
      Furor

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    4. Mark, I have an unopened pack of FS-150 Furor/Terror. It is yours if you send your mailing address. You can send you mailing address via the Contact Form at
      https://palousewargamingjournal.blogspot.com/

      Too bad you do not need ether a Velasco or Isla de Luzon. I seem to have wound up with multiples of those too.

      Jon

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    5. Address sent! Many thanks sir!

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  2. Very good. Have you had a look at the reprint of Featherstone's Naval Wargames? Bob Cordery is doing a naval version of his portable wargame.

    You can see an early version here.

    http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~warden/BlogFreeDownloads/FreePNavalPreDreadnought.pdf

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. The portable naval wargame rules look very interesting.

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